


What Was Said, What Was Meant

by InAmongstTheMountains



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 23:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5474498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InAmongstTheMountains/pseuds/InAmongstTheMountains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during KotFE, a reunion five years in the making.</p>
<p>Wholly self-indulgent as I wait for the next chapter to come out and see if we get to meet the old LI's again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Was Said, What Was Meant

“Moff, sir. You have a visitor.”

Malavai set down his data pad and thrummed his fingers once with annoyance across the command station. Damn Sith. There were at least 20 different projects that required his immediate attention, and every second spared to shine another man’s boots was a moment wasted. Wasted when he should be fighting for the Empire, wasted when he should be searching for-

_Zhaire._

Everything froze, time held still under a drowning wave of relief, desperation, and near-disbelief. He wanted to laugh, yet there was no air in his lungs. Zhaire. Oh stars she was here, barely a day older than he’d left her, but bright and confidant, the eye of the storm, the center of his galaxy. She watched him, stoic and patient, impassive to any onlooker, but to him she brought back a language of finger movements and soft sweeps of her eyes that they used before, in those lifetimes ago.

“Moff Quinn.” She said, commanding, even-toned. _‘Malavai. Malavai, I’ve missed you._ ’ was what he heard. Quinn bowed, a fraction higher than he would have to any other Sith, unable to pull his gaze from her face. When he responded with ‘My Lord, what brings you here?’ What he meant was ‘ _My Love, there’s so much to say, so much to make up for._ ’

Zhaire paced forward, her hands mimicking his, behind her back, setting them as equals. She wore different, lighter robes, how much smaller she used to look without all that armor, but everything about her had changed: her stance, her eyes, the weight from her shoulders, the air around her, and he regretted having missed any second of that metamorphosis. “I’m here looking for soldiers.” _I’m here to see you_. “We are bringing the fight to Zakuul, and every ship counts.” _You are the only asset I need here._

Without taking his eyes from her, Quinn beckoned one of his officers. “Lieutenant, please escort my Lord to the second deck conference room, I will be along shortly.” The young woman snapped in salute, waiting for Zhaire to follow her. Zhaire paused, holding Quinn’s gaze with a tenderness he’d never seen from her before. With the end of their silent conversation, she turned away and Quinn felt his heart racing. The taste of cycled ship air filled his lungs, and he realized the entire time she stood there he’d been holding his breath.

**

Zhaire declined refreshments and instead ordered privacy. The pressure doors hissed behind her and she grasped the table in support, her heart ready to beat right out of her chest.

_Malavai_.

His name still felt right on her tongue, she half laughed, joyed and relieved that he still remembered the way they used to talk, their secret right under Baras’ nose and those of the rest of the crew. He’d grown. His confidence finally on par with his competence. He looked so natural with the new rank pinned to his chest at the helm of his own ship. This is what he could have never had under Baras…. And maybe never had under me. She’d missed him desperately. Twice she was nearly dead and her last thoughts of consciousness and her first thoughts upon waking had been of him. There was a centeredness being back in proximity, hearing his voice, feeling his gaze on her. A strength she didn’t realize she had until it was gone. And… a freedom. With Malavai, gone were her doubts, her fears, the nagging impression of Vitiate in the back of her mind.

Through victory my chains are broken… He was her victory.

The doors opened and Zhaire could sense him, but all the thoughts she just had didn’t know how to form to words. “Your own ship.” She smiled not turning, trying to get out the undefined feelings she’d carried for so long. “It’s fitting, you look so right up there. Your crew respects you, and this is finally a duty worthy of you, the Imperial Navy couldn’t be in better hands.” His footsteps sounded closer but Zhaire continued. “I am truly here because I need you, but seeing you up there, I don’t feel worthy asking you to leave this for me. You deserve this, and it would be so selfish for me to call you back to my side. I care too much for you to even think to take it all away.” She drew a deep breath, steadying herself. “I should have told this to you years ago, I should have seen the truth then, and I’ve hurt you, keeping it bottled up in me for so long. Malavai…”

Zhaire paused and turned to face him, only to be swept into his arms, reveling in the memory of how alive she felt when he pulled her towards him. Gone were both their masks, the roles they played for so long. When she looked at him, she saw greying temples wise rather than age, the lines of a young man shedding an old man’s regret, a thankful and adoring promise in deep iris’ that she could not bare too and yet desperately needed to drown in again.

“It’s been a very long time since I saw your eyes grey.” His hands found their old spots, cradling the small of her back and the nape of her neck. In the back of her mind Zhaire caught a scent of the cologne she’s given him as she pressed against his chest. They both moved to kiss the other, Malavai pausing a heartbeat away just so he could say her name, an answer to a prayer.

“Zhaire.” Their lips crashed together and it was like the joining of two galaxies, wild, furious, ever changing, firey. Stars were born and died in the time it took them to separate.Finally back together, as they should have been, loving and free. Neither had ever seen the other so content.

“I knew I’d see you again.” He rasped, tightening their embrace, clinging to her, the reason his world had color and meaning again.

“You’ve been all I’ve thought about.” Zhaire whispered, trembling in her honesty. Malavai tilted up her chin and they kissed again, softer, sweeter, exploratory and hesitant.

Zhaire wanted nothing more than to forget everything for the next month, and just be with him again, yet she was too well trained, and the fate of the Empire always seemed to come first.

With a keenness close to force-sensitivity, Malavai seemed to read her thoughts. “We’ve been waiting almost eight years for this, and have five of those to make up for.” They drew back together, bright, adoring, and cradling a well-earned peaceful familiarity. “The galaxy can give us back an hour.”


End file.
